The poem Loveliest of trees, the cherry now by A. E. Housman (1859–1936) was written in 1896.
To understand the poem, remember that at that time people referred to the number 20 as "score". Threescore meant 60. In the 2nd verse, when the author wrote, "of my threescore years and ten", he meant he’s expecting to live 70 years. He’s 20 years old in the poem.
Here’s Loveliest of Trees with a recording…
MP3 of Loveliest of trees, the cherry now
Loveliest of trees, the cherry now
Loveliest of trees, the cherry now
Is hung with bloom along the bough,
And stands about the woodland ride
Wearing white for Eastertide.
Now, of my threescore years and ten (70),
Twenty will not come again,
And take from seventy springs a score (20),
It only leaves me fifty more.
And since to look at things in bloom
Fifty springs are little room,
About the woodlands I will go
To see the cherry hung with snow.
This article was posted on Tuesday, March 27th, 2012 at 9:51 am and is filed under Cherry Blossom Poems, Countries & Cultures, England, English, Languages, MP3's of Poems, Poems, Poems about Spring, Poetry, Poetry about the Seasons, Poets, Recordings, Recordings of Poems, USA. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.
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